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Slavery
Most southern states had laws forbidding teaching people in slavery to read. Five percent became literate at great personal risk. -
Textbooks
William Holmes McGuffey's readers was published. These were the most influential textbooks. -
Board of Education
Horace Mann became Secretary of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education. He worked tirelessly for increased funding for public schools and training for teachers. Thoughts of free education gained a national audience. He later became the first president of Antioch College. -
State Funded Schools
The first state funded school, specifically for teacher educating, (then known as "normal" schools) opened in Lexington, Massachusetts. -
Irish Immigrants
Irish immigrants were driven out of their homes in Ireland from the potato famine. They came to the United States. Irish Catholics struggle for local neighborhood control of schools as a way of preventing their children from begin force-fed a Protestant curriculum. -
Massachusetts Reform School
Massachusetts Reform School at Westboro opens, where children who have refused to attend public schools are sent. Reform schools combine the education and juvenile justice systems. -
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
The war against Mexico ends with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which gives the US almost half of what was then Mexico. The treaty guaranteed citizenship rights to everyone living in these areas, mostly Mexicans and Native people. It also guarantees the continued use of the Spanish language, including in education. In 1998, 150 years later California broke that treaty by passing Proposition 227. That made it illegal for teachers to teach Spanish in public schools. -
First Compulsory Education Law
State of Massachusetts passes its first compulsory education law. The goal is to make sure that the children of poor immigrants get "civilized" and learn obedience and restraint, so they make good workers and contribute to social upheaval. -
First Kindergarten
The first kindergarten in the United States started in Watertown, Wisconsin, founded by Margarethe Schurz. Four years later, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody opens the first "formal" kindergarten in Boston. -
National Teachers Association
National Teachers Association is founded by 43 educators in Philadelphia. It is now called the National Education Association. -
The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" was published on November 24th, introducing his theory that species evolve through the process of natural selection, and setting the stage for the controversy surrounding teaching the theory of evolution in the public schools that is still taught to this day.